Factory of Strategy
Thirty-Three Lessons on Lenin
1st Edition
Published on 28. July 2015
368 pages
978-0-231-51942-7 (ISBN)
Description
Factory of Strategy is the last of Antonio Negri's major political works to be translated into English. Rigorous and accessible, it is both a systematic inquiry into the development of Lenin's thought and an encapsulation of a critical shift in Negri's theoretical trajectory.
Lenin is the only prominent politician of the modern era to seriously question the "withering away" and "extinction" of the state, and like Marx, he recognized the link between capitalism and modern sovereignty and the need to destroy capitalism and reconfigure the state. Negri refrains from portraying Lenin as a ferocious dictator enforcing the proletariat's reappropriation of wealth, nor does he depict him as a mere military tool of a vanguard opposed to the Ancien Régime. Negri instead champions Leninism's ability to adapt to different working-class configurations in Russia, China, Latin America, and elsewhere. He argues that Lenin developed a new political figuration in and beyond modernity and an effective organization capable of absorbing different historical conditions. He ultimately urges readers to recognize the universal application of Leninism today and its potential to institutionally-not anarchically-dismantle centralized power.
Lenin is the only prominent politician of the modern era to seriously question the "withering away" and "extinction" of the state, and like Marx, he recognized the link between capitalism and modern sovereignty and the need to destroy capitalism and reconfigure the state. Negri refrains from portraying Lenin as a ferocious dictator enforcing the proletariat's reappropriation of wealth, nor does he depict him as a mere military tool of a vanguard opposed to the Ancien Régime. Negri instead champions Leninism's ability to adapt to different working-class configurations in Russia, China, Latin America, and elsewhere. He argues that Lenin developed a new political figuration in and beyond modernity and an effective organization capable of absorbing different historical conditions. He ultimately urges readers to recognize the universal application of Leninism today and its potential to institutionally-not anarchically-dismantle centralized power.
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02/2014
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Persons
Contributor: Antonio Negri Antonio Negri (1933-2023) was an Italian philosopher and political activist. He was a prominent figure in the left-wing operaismo movement in the 1960s and '70s. He is best known for his writings on globalization-particularly the highly influential volume Empire (co-authored with Michael Hardt)-but he also wrote on subjects as various as Vladimir Lenin, Baruch Spinoza, and the Book of Job.
Content
Preface to the English Translation
Preface to the Second Edition
Translator's Note
Part I. Lenin and Our Generation
1. Toward a Marxist Reading of Lenin's Marxism
2. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (1): Economic Struggle and Political Struggle: Class Struggle
3. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (2): The Working-Class Character of Organization: The Party as Factory
4. In Lenin's Footsteps from the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization: Annotations
5. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (1): Proletarian Independence
6. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (2): The Factory of Strategy
7. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (3): Organization Toward Communism
8. In Lenin's Footsteps from the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution: Annotations
9. Insurrection as Art and Practice of the Masses
Part II. Lenin and the Soviets in the Russian Revolution and Some Remarks on Sovietism
10. The Soviets Between Spontaneity and Theory
11. Lenin and the Soviets Between 1905 and 1917
12. The Soviets and the Leninist Inversion of Praxis
13. The Reformist Change of Praxis: Soviets Today?
14. Verifying the Question of Whether the Soviet Is an Organ of Power
15. The Soviet Form of Masses and the Urgency of Workers' Struggle
Part III. Interregnum on the Dialectic: The Notebooks of 1914-1916
16. Dialectics as the Recovered Form of Lenin's Thought
17. Lenin Reads Hegel
18. Between Philosophy and Politics: The Weapon of Dialectics
Part IV. The Economic Foundations of the Withering-Away of the State: Introduction to the Reading of The State and Revolution
19. "Where to begin?"
20. The Concept of the State in General Can and Must Be Destroyed
21. Opportunist and Revolutionary Conceptions of the Withering-Away of the State
22. The Question of the "Withering-Away" of the State: Against Equality
23. First Approach to a Definition of the Material Bases of the "Withering-Away": Against Work, Against Socialism
24. Marx's Anticipation of the Problem of "Withering-Away": Against the Law of Value
25. Toward a Problematic View of Transition: Impossible Socialism and the Coming Communism
26. On the Problem of Transition Again: The Word to the Masses
27. Transition and Proletarian Dictatorship: The Particular Interests of the Working Class
28. Transition, Material Basis, and Expansiveness of the Working-Class Government
29. A Provisional Conclusion: Lenin and Us
Part V. Appendix on "Left-Wing" Communism: A Conclusion and a Beginning
30. A Difficult Balance
31. A Definition of "Left-Wing" Communism, and Some (Adequate?) Examples
32. Toward a New Cycle of Struggles
33. From "Left-Wing" Communism to What Is to Be Done?
Preface to the Second Edition
Translator's Note
Part I. Lenin and Our Generation
1. Toward a Marxist Reading of Lenin's Marxism
2. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (1): Economic Struggle and Political Struggle: Class Struggle
3. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (2): The Working-Class Character of Organization: The Party as Factory
4. In Lenin's Footsteps from the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization: Annotations
5. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (1): Proletarian Independence
6. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (2): The Factory of Strategy
7. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (3): Organization Toward Communism
8. In Lenin's Footsteps from the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution: Annotations
9. Insurrection as Art and Practice of the Masses
Part II. Lenin and the Soviets in the Russian Revolution and Some Remarks on Sovietism
10. The Soviets Between Spontaneity and Theory
11. Lenin and the Soviets Between 1905 and 1917
12. The Soviets and the Leninist Inversion of Praxis
13. The Reformist Change of Praxis: Soviets Today?
14. Verifying the Question of Whether the Soviet Is an Organ of Power
15. The Soviet Form of Masses and the Urgency of Workers' Struggle
Part III. Interregnum on the Dialectic: The Notebooks of 1914-1916
16. Dialectics as the Recovered Form of Lenin's Thought
17. Lenin Reads Hegel
18. Between Philosophy and Politics: The Weapon of Dialectics
Part IV. The Economic Foundations of the Withering-Away of the State: Introduction to the Reading of The State and Revolution
19. "Where to begin?"
20. The Concept of the State in General Can and Must Be Destroyed
21. Opportunist and Revolutionary Conceptions of the Withering-Away of the State
22. The Question of the "Withering-Away" of the State: Against Equality
23. First Approach to a Definition of the Material Bases of the "Withering-Away": Against Work, Against Socialism
24. Marx's Anticipation of the Problem of "Withering-Away": Against the Law of Value
25. Toward a Problematic View of Transition: Impossible Socialism and the Coming Communism
26. On the Problem of Transition Again: The Word to the Masses
27. Transition and Proletarian Dictatorship: The Particular Interests of the Working Class
28. Transition, Material Basis, and Expansiveness of the Working-Class Government
29. A Provisional Conclusion: Lenin and Us
Part V. Appendix on "Left-Wing" Communism: A Conclusion and a Beginning
30. A Difficult Balance
31. A Definition of "Left-Wing" Communism, and Some (Adequate?) Examples
32. Toward a New Cycle of Struggles
33. From "Left-Wing" Communism to What Is to Be Done?
